It’s Sunday, and today is our last full day in Hong Kong. We board an airplane tomorrow morning, which will bring us back to the good ‘ole US of A. Detroit is our port of entry, and barring any unforeseen events, Mia will become a US citizen there. We have a large brown envelope, carrying all of her citizenship documents. This envelope must arrive at immigration intact and unopened. We are guarding it like a precious jewel. To finish out our exploration of Hong Kong, we took a day trip to Lantau Island. We navigated the Hong Kong metro system relatively easily (this one wasn’t nearly as daunting as Tokyo), once we realized that the ticket machines only accepted payment in cash, and that cash had to be paid in coins. One way tickets for the four of us totaled $68 (Hong Kong dollars, not US). Do people here really have to carry that much change around if they want to use the Metro? This seemed very strange. Once we completed the 30 minute train ride to Lantau, we stood in a very long queue (the British word for line) to purchase our cable car tickets which would take us to the top of the island, and the Ngong Ping village. Hong Kong has only been back in the possession of the Chinese government since 1999, so everything here is still very British. We splurged for the glass-bottom cable car for our 25 minute ride to the top. The children loved watching the passing scenery through the floor, so the extra money was well spent. The village was cute, and very western, sporting the likes of Subway, Hagen-Daas, and of course, Starbucks. We picnicked under an umbrella covered table, before venturing towards the Tian Tan statue. This statue is the world’s tallest outdoor, seated bronze statue of the Buddha. Despite Communist rule, the predominant faith system here is Buddhism, followed by Islam in distant second. This statue of the Buddha is adjacent to the Po Lin Monastery, which is Hong Kong’s most predominant. Together, we climbed all 288 steps to the top. We did our best to respect the reverence of the monument dedicated to this great spiritual teacher, and we saw many people involved in silent, or chanting prayer.
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It’s Saturday, and we were looking for something fun to do with the kids here in Hong Kong. Believe it or not, in all of our explorations of Asia thus far, we have completely missed seeing what some might think of as the mascot of China – the Giant Panda. In our defense, we’ve been busy. Anytime you plan a trip, you have to make choices. You can’t see and do everything a place has to offer. There just isn’t enough time. With that said, I’ll admit that we chose not to go to the zoo in Beijing. In retrospect, that was probably a poor decision, as another couple from our adoption group reported that it was fabulous. Then, while we were in the Guang, we wanted to use one of our free days to go to the safari park located on the outskirts of the city. Unfortunately, we were outvoted by the other families, and we ended up going to the (boring) jade and pearl markets instead. It was beginning to look like we were not meant to see a Panda on this trip. So, in planning our day today, Chris excitedly introduced the possibility of going to Ocean Park for the day. “We can see some Giant Pandas there!” he said, as a way to sell me on the idea. I groaned. Oh God, not a theme park! I’ll be honest, I’m not a big fan. We live in Florida, so we go – a lot. Universal, SeaWorld, Disney, we’ve seen them all. I don’t know why, but my husband loves theme parks. I mean, LOVES THEM, loves them. As we discussed our possible theme park day, I could feel the dread churning around in my stomach. I don’t know for certain, but I think that maybe one of the deeper circles of hell involves an endless day at a foreign theme park in 100 degree heat and 98% humidity with two cranky children . . . Sometimes, there are things you must do for the person you love. Thankfully, we arrived right at the parks’ opening time. It was sunny, and the temperature was already rising. We made a beeline for the Panda exhibit, and made it there just in time for feeding. The habitat was large, and well kept, which made me feel a little better about paying to see the Panda prison. The Pandas themselves seemed peaceful and happy as we watched them munch their breakfast of bamboo. We spend the remainder of the day, doing all of the regular theme park stuff. Ocean Park is an interesting mix of a zoo, an aquarium, and a typical theme park with rides and such. We took the gondolas up to the top of the mountain, and saw beautiful vista views. We marveled at the exotic and colorful birds and fish. When it came time for lunch, we had some interesting choices to make. The ‘street’ vendors offered hot dogs, grilled squid, or spicy fish balls. Hmmm. We decided to skip those, and opted for a sit down restaurant complete with a/c. We enjoyed a relatively healthy meal of stir-fried chicken with ginger, and some barbecued pork dumplings. Yum! Best theme park food we’ve ever had. Despite all odds, and exceeding all expectations, Mia was fantastic. Everyday, as we are getting to know each other, I am so grateful that she is ours. She has a lightness of spirit and a real sparkle in her soul. If I were her age, with her background, this would have to have been (another) overwhelming experience. Yet she took it all in stride, with a huge smile on her face. I have a feeling that I have a lot to learn from this little girl. “You can’t always get what you want” at least that’s what Mick Jagger says. As this is our first full day in Hong Kong, I wanted to get out with the girls and play in the hotel pool and the park nearby, while Chris checked in with the Expedia office located here to fulfill his work obligations. Unfortunately, we woke up this morning to a gray steady rain, which has persisted all day. At first, I was more than a little disappointed. What was I going to do with two bored children stuck in a hotel room all day long? As usual, the Universe knows better than I. In retrospect, I am so thankful for a quiet, rainy day. We’re all tired, down to our bones. The girls took the morning to construct a fort under the desk in their room using pillows and their Chinese umbrellas. They played together beautifully for a really long time. I had some quiet, a shower and time to make a much needed phone call. After lunch, we watched movies, and took naps. So, I guess Mick was right. You can’t always get what you want. But sometimes, you get what you need.
After breakfast, we began packing up our belongings in preparation for our morning departure. The confusion and frustration on Mia’s face was painful to see. We did our best to try to tell her what was going to happen. We even enlisted the help of our Holt representative, Catherine, who could at least explain to her in words she could understand. Despite our best efforts, little Mia had a tough morning. She hid. She took things out of the suitcases, often faster than we were putting things in. She even cried once or twice. Thankfully, she settled on clinging on to me with a level of ferocity I would not have expected from such a little person. I’m not going to kid anyone here, transitions are difficult for me, too. Given that, I think it was easier for me to empathize with how she must be feeling. To us, this is nothing, we’re leaving the Marriott hotel. To her, we’re leaving only the second place she’s ever spent the night, and going where? I’m sure she can’t even imagine. It didn’t help that we’re all tired and crabby. I spent the entire morning bouncing back and forth between my role as consoling mother and referee. We left the Guang by train to Hong Kong. While many, many parts of this adventure have been absolutely wonderful, others – well, not so much. Chris’s aunt Marj has a saying that goes something like, “You haven’t travelled the world until you know how to flush a toilet eleven different ways.”. If that saying holds true, and we certainly think it does, then after visiting 23 countries and 4 continents, I can call myself a true world traveler. Like everything else in life, when you are away from home, you have to approach foreign toilets with a healthy sense of humor. Your own tissue, and some hand sanitizer are certainly helpful, too. In China, like many other middle eastern countries, the majority of the toilets are little more than a hole in the floor, affectionately nicknamed ‘squatty potties’. So, after boarding the train this morning, Mia began pulling on my arm, while doing the famous kids’ pee-pee dance. And off we go, portable tissue pack in hand. Now, it wouldn’t be appropriate to discuss the intimate details of our excursion here, but I feel justified in claiming another level of motherhood achievement. Imagine if you will, navigating a tiny, stinky squatty potty with a small child all the while rocking and bumping with the motion of a moving train. Only my many years of yoga training could have prepared me for the strength, flexibility and balance necessary to accomplish this feat. After today, I feel like I deserve a medal, or at least a stiff drink. And Sydney says: Squatty potties are DISGUSTING! But sometimes, you get what you get, and you don’t throw a fit! This was our last full day here in Guangzhou, or as Chris has nicknamed it, The Guang (pronounced Gwanj). With Mia’s Chinese passport and US visa in hand, we will leave first thing tomorrow morning on a train to Hong Kong. We are so ready to be leaving here, and so thankful that we are able to leave on schedule! In keeping with the Holt tradition, all of the families in our adoptive group gathered in the office this afternoon for the ‘red couch’ photo. I’m not sure how long ago this tradition started, but it has been going on for quite some time. This photo shows all of the adoptive children from our group, in traditional Chinese dress: The photo meant a lot to the Gonzalez family, as their daughter Leah (far right, pink dress) is the third child they have adopted from China through Holt. The photo wasn’t as meaningful to us, but hey, who are we to break tradition? We were there in the office much longer than we thought we would be, trying to get all of the children to cooperate. Many, many pictures were taken, but as it often goes, at least one of the children were screaming in each and every take. We were very proud of Mia – she never cried, but just looked bored with the entire process. We were with you, girlie! After all the tries, we were all ready to get the heck out of there! Since we’re scheduled to leave early tomorrow, we decided to make a quick trip to the 7 Eleven (yep, just like we have at home) to stock up on snacks for the trip. I haven’t made mention of all of the *interesting* foods available here in China. Today, we saw packaged dried squid, seafood flavored chips, and yes, those are chicken feet! We decided to play it safe, and go with the pistachios instead. I have to admit, I probably should have tried the chicken feet. They must be tasty, as they have been a staple on the hotel restaurant buffet the entire time we’ve been here. All in all, the food has been great. For example, I’ve enjoyed smoked whitefish, hummus and pita bread for breakfast almost every day. And let me just say that bacon wrapped asparagus is to die for! One thing is certain about traveling, you’ve got to be flexible when it comes to food. Today, my oldest daughter turned seven years old! (Wow, that sounds so strange to say, I guess it’s going to take some getting used to!) Since we are so far from home, we did what we could to make our big girls day as special as possible. A delicious breakfast of french toast ordered from room service was just the thing to get the day started with style. We had to report to the US immigration office this morning at 10:00 to apply for Mia’s visa, which broke up the fun of the morning. Thankfully, everything went smoothly there, after all of our paperwork woes. We’re still a little concerned about this, and will continue to be, until we have passed through the final immigration checkpoint on our way back home. Like everything else, we are taking this one hurdle at a time. After finishing with immigration, we dropped Chris and Mia off at the room for a much needed nap. Sydney and I took this opportunity for some mom and daughter time, and we got out and did a little shopping. We had a wonderful time browsing the shops near our hotel, and we even found some great deals. As in many other places in the world, you are expected to ‘bargain’ with the shopkeepers for the best price, even for everyday items. This is a bit strange, and hard to get used to, at least for me. The language barrier here makes this exchange even trickier. I was amused to see the shopkeeper pull out a large calculator, and type in the price of the item I was interested in. Then, she handed the calculator to me, and I typed in my starting price. This version of haggling worked well, and we either came to a price where we could agree, or I walked away. Sydney was very perplexed by this at first, but quickly got the idea. She even helped me bargain for a pair of traditional Chinese umbrellas, a purple one for her, and a hot pink one for her sister. Since today was (almost) all about Sydney, she decided our afternoon would just be relaxing, hanging out, and watching movies in our room. After watching “Alladin” and most of “Cars”, we all felt like our brains were turning to pudding, and we had to get outside! We took off for a walk, and passed by a shopping center that had (literally) rolled out the red carpet for it’s grand opening today. Just outside the entrance, there were eight different bigger than life-sized transformers! Some were fascinating, a few were a little scary, and this one cracked us up! To top off the fun of the day, we met the other families and took a dinner cruise on the Pearl river. Unlike in the states, this boat allowed us to bring our own food and drink aboard, so we got together and ordered Papa John’s pizza! We have been very surprised by how western China has been, and this is just one example. Not that Papa John’s is our favorite, but we’re getting tired of stir-fry and dumplings. After finishing our pizza, we all made our way to the upper deck of the boat to feel the cool evening breeze, and see the sights of the river. The Chinese are all about the colored lights – on bridges, on buildings – everywhere. Several of the buildings and bridges we saw sported colored lights that rotated in a pattern. First green, then orange, then blue, then teal. All in all, this cruise was one of the more fun and relaxing things we’ve experienced here in Guangzhou. And Sydney says:
My favorite part of the day was the river cruise! It was so fun, and the lights were beautiful. Yesterday, was my best mother’s day EVER! An hour of quiet yoga and meditation was just what I needed to help me find some peace and calm to begin the day. Everyone told me going into this adventure, that parenting two children would be A LOT more work than parenting one, and of course, it’s true. But, like everything else in life, you don’t really KNOW something, until you know it first hand . . . Funny thing of it is, I had prepared for Mia to be more of the ‘typical’ institutionalized child. Very often these children have developmental delays, and poorly developed social skills. They require extra effort and gentle coaxing to get them to interact with you. You have to work a little harder to get them to come out of their shell, so I brought several activities with exactly that in mind. Well let me tell you, with Mia, there was no shell! She has no trouble looking us directly in the eye, is unbelievably social, and she is curious about EVERYTHING! She has an easy smile, and a deep belly laugh. She loves to be held, and she gives lots of kisses. She learns new things very quickly, and has a fantastic sense of humor. She’s beginning to use tiny bits of English, but it is clear that she understands much more. As of today, she has been with us for a full week, and she has shown us her fun, confident, strong personality every single day! That strong, confident personality often gets her into conflict with Sydney, who is just as strong and confident. Suffice to say that we’ve had more than a few disagreements. But on the flip side, I’m watching a budding friendship start. Like many other siblings I know, they will be laughing one minute, arguing the next, then before I know it they are hugging each other and back to playing. Just like any other siblings will. I’m so proud of both of my girls, even when they argue. That sounds strange, but it’s true. I don’t like playing the referee, but I accept that it is part of my job, at least for now, and maybe for always. My heart leaps with joy when I see them playing well together, and getting along. The head to head combat just shows me that they both feel like they belong in this family, and that they both believe that their feelings and opinions matter. I have often said that being a mother is the toughest job I’ve ever done for no money and no time off, and it still is. Now that I’m a mother of two, the work may be more than double, but the good thing is that the joy is more than double, too. So, you’re probably wondering about the terribly close call. Last Friday, when we went for Mia’s medical clearance, it was discovered that one of the Chinese documents in her file was possibly not hers, as it listed another child’s name. This caused a lot of confusion, and led to more investigation. This investigation led to other problems, BIGGER ones. I’m not going to divulge all of the details here, but until about an hour ago, we weren’t sure if she was going to be allowed to leave China without some significant delay. Or, even if she had been allowed to leave, that immigration would have permitted her to entrance into the US. Thankfully, we found out about these issues while we are able to do something about them. Catherine, our Holt representative here, has been amazing! She has done everything in her power to acquire the extra documentation we needed – she’s practically moved mountains on our behalf. It’s been touch and go for the last two days, but as of this minute, we are in the clear, and set for our appointment at the US Consulate tomorrow morning for Mia’s US visa. If for some reason the Consulate decides to refuse our added documentation, well, we will cross that bridge when it comes. And Sydney says: I love my new sister, but she can be really annoying when she wants to do everything that I do. My mom says that little sisters are like that, and that I’d better get used to it. We all woke up on the wrong side of the bed this morning, irritable and grouchy. We’re physically tired from all of the stresses of this adventure, and the disruption of our normal routine. We’ve been traveling for 17 days and we miss our home. We miss our beds. We are sick of wearing the same clothes day after day, and we have had enough of restaurant food. Mostly, we just want to come home. As stressed and tired as we are, I know that Mia is feeling just the same, if not more so. As I was hurrying to get myself ready to go this morning, and I heard a little bit of a ruckus from the girls in the other room. The next thing I knew, Mia came to me, with a very serious look on her face, speaking loudly and quickly in Chinese. Let me tell you, this little girl can be so LOUD! To look at her, you would never guess that so much noise could come out of such a little person. From what I could determine, Sydney had done something upsetting, and Mia was coming to me for intervention. I took a deep breath, and thought to myself, “the rivalry begins . . .”. I had to bite my tongue not to chuckle at the tattling – it was so stinking cute! I wish I knew what she was saying, and I’m certain that SHE wishes I knew what she was saying, too. I could see the frustration in her eyes. She talks constantly, mostly in Chinese, but I am amazed by how much English she has already acquired. We’ve been singing with her, because she seems to like that, and she has quickly learned the ABC song. Just not in the proper order. She’s got the melody down, but it comes out something like, “A P D C O B G . . .” It’s hilarious! Food has started to become an issue, too. The first couple of days, she ate anything we put in front of her, but now, she has become more discriminating. She’s great with vegetables, loves asparagus and broccoli, but doesn’t like hamburgers or chocolate milk. Sydney couldn’t believe that Mia would reject chocolate milk! I have to admit, it surprised me too. We ordered her some Chinese wonton noodle soup for lunch today, and she seemed so thankful for something familiar. We can certainly relate. Traveling is fun and all, but there’s no place like home. One thing that we can certainly say about the city of Guangzhou is that it is HOT and HUMID. The daytime high temperature has been in the upper 90’s, with 90% humidity. It only takes a few minutes walking outside to be drenched in sweat. Today was a free day – no appointments or planned activities. We’ve gotten to know one of the other families from our Holt adoption group pretty well, The Gonzalez Family, who have just adopted Leah, who is their third chinese child. They are an amazing family! We love hanging out with them, and all of the kids get along incredibly well. Anyway, we decided to brave the heat (and the taxi ride), and follow them over to Shamian Island, to see the shops and the infamous White Swan Hotel. The White Swan is the hotel where Holt has arranged lodging for all its China adoptive families for years and years. As of last October, the hotel closed down for a total remodel, and Holt moved it’s office and families here to the China Hotel. The island was a beautiful place. And after visiting here, we are even more disappointed to be missing out on the tradition of the White Swan . It’s also unfortunate to see how its closing has negatively impacted the economy of the island. Much of the surrounding retail space now stands empty, and the shops that remain are struggling. We did our part to contribute by purchasing several souvenirs, and a few toys for the girls. By the afternoon, we were getting tired and cranky from the heat. Sydney was a huge help! She played “crazy driver” pushing Mia around in the stroller, and kept everyone laughing and smiling. After reading all of the comments to yesterday’s post, I am left feeling a little guilty. I had not intended to sound so sad! On the contrary, while Mia has had her moments of grief, we have seen many more moments of joy. I am amazed and grateful for her resilience, her ability and willingness to bounce back and move forward. After the stress of returning to the Civil Affairs Office yesterday morning, we came back to the hotel, and Sydney and Chris went off to frolic in the swimming pool, while Mia crashed – and slept for a good three hours. When she awoke, she was cheerful, happy and FULL of energy! We walked down to a nearby park and playground, and had a great time running and playing. This morning brought the breakthrough I have been waiting for. As we were on our way to breakfast, Mia reached her arms up to me, wanting to be picked up! I was so excited about this, I almost burst into tears. Finally, my patience has been rewarded! Today, I am the object of her attention. She is looking at me, following me everywhere, and calling me Mama, all with a huge smile upon her face! When she looked up at me a few minutes ago and said “Wo ai ni” (pronounced whoa-eye-knee), which is Mandarin for I love you, I felt like I could fly . . . And as if that weren’t enough, her language skills are astounding. We started with the sign language videos, to give her a quick and easy bridge from her native language to English. She picked up the signs right away, but isn’t at all interested in using them. Instead, she has become a parrot – repeating many of our words as we use them, with a clarity I would never have imagined she could produce so quickly. What’s been even more surprising is her ability to remember these new words, and use them correctly in new situations. She is curious about EVERYTHING. Like a tiny Chinese tornado, she spins around the room, getting into everything. The highlight of the day so far was a morning shoe shopping trip! The shoes Mia was wearing when she arrived are at least one size too big. We were unable to find a store close to the hotel that carried children’s things, so we had to take a twenty minute taxi ride to the nearest shopping center. I have never seen a little girl get so excited with such a simple thing. When she put on her new shoes, she beamed from ear to ear. And Sydney says: I really like having a sister, and she is way fun to play with, but I feel like Mia is getting all of my mom’s attention today, and I don’t really like it. |
Lisa LynchLisa is a world traveling mom that took the ultimate adventure Archives
December 2012
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